chris
How Cost Estimators have fun!
I spent a few minutes looking back at the last 4 years of construction cost inflation. Ah the good old days. The first chart below is...
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chris
- Jul 11, 2023
- 2 min
Escalation - Is the dread beast on the way back?
Yes, I know it’s a little bit of a click-bait, but after a several months of declining construction cost escalation, (often close to zero...
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chris
- Apr 25, 2023
- 2 min
Construction cost inflation is getting boring again...
Now what am I going to write about? Greater market inflation continues to struggle several points above the FED's preferred 3% target,...
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chris
- Jan 9, 2023
- 2 min
Inflation in construction versus the CPI – Right Now.
Interesting study in how data can mislead, or fail to provide complete information: The rate of inflation, both in the greater economy as...
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chris
- Dec 14, 2022
- 2 min
What’s next in Construction Escalation?
After a few years of insanely bad news for construction costs – 20% annual inflation, supply chain disruptions, and lead times longer...
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chris
- Aug 9, 2022
- 1 min
Top of the Market to you!
Frequently conversations regarding construction cost these days contain the phrase – “How much higher can it go?” It does seem as if...
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chris
- Aug 9, 2022
- 2 min
How bad is it out there?
Digging around in the data vaults of the FED, just a quick look at the annual (trailing) change in construction jobs since 1940 – The war...
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chris
- Jun 21, 2022
- 2 min
CPI Versus Construction cost increases
It’s in all the news, inflation is back. Construction firms have lived with inflation all along – when your margin is 3%, and...
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chris
- May 23, 2022
- 1 min
Is Amazon leading the way to construction de-escalation?
An article by Joe Gordon for Bisnow in San Francisco, discusses the state of the market in warehouse space, at least as far as it relates...
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chris
- Mar 29, 2022
- 2 min
Death and Taxes
To quote Ben Franklin, and others, “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”. For 2022, you might want...
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chris
- Oct 26, 2021
- 1 min
What is going on in the pre-engineered building (PEMB) marketplace!
Careful with your Value Engineering! Reports from manufacturers indicate 50 week or longer lead times, and pricing at double or more of ...
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chris
- Sep 28, 2021
- 2 min
What does a drought in Brazil have to do with the price of construction in Philadelphia?
Bloomberg has a feature story about the drought in South America and trivializes the impacts with the lede “No country on Earth puts more...
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chris
- Sep 22, 2021
- 2 min
What’s going on in Residential?
During the pandemic, almost every discussion about how busy the markets are, has had one large footnote: Residential is going...
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chris
- Sep 16, 2021
- 2 min
Material Escalation – Big actors in late 2021
I hear lots of talk in the marketplace about escalation, anecdotes about troubled buy-outs, supply delays and general chaos. Anecdotes...
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chris
- Sep 16, 2021
- 2 min
Be like the bug - Coronavirus strategies for construction
The virus has some strategies that make it a fearsome competitor. Are any of these strategies useful for our industry? 1) Strike...
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- May 26, 2021
- 4 min
Construction Inflation May 2021 - "It's Baa-ak!"
So far this week, (it is Tuesday as I write this), I have had 3 in-depth conversations about construction inflation. Topics ranged from...
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- Apr 26, 2021
- 2 min
Lumber throwing a wrench in construction budgets!
COVID, and a massive increase in demand for residential housing is having a new impact in the industry - I've heard multiple anecdotes...
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- Apr 7, 2021
- 2 min
Good news on construction jobs tempered by harsh realities
ENR https://www.enr.com/articles/51519-construction-jobs-jump-by-110000-in-march?oly_enc_id=3536I0798201B9X notes a nice bump in...
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- Apr 5, 2021
- 2 min
COVID and Renewable Energy - What happened?
What happened with renewable energy while we’ve all been cocooning in our respective Covid pods? The big picture is that total energy use...
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- Dec 16, 2020
- 2 min
How Bonding Surety firms drive construction staffing.
It may seem unlikely, but one major factor in construction manager staffing is the requirements that surety firms place on construction...
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